Day 5: Mumbai

Thursday March 7, 2013

Waking up to a view of the Arabian Sea was an amazing way to begin our first full day in Mumbai. After a great breakfast at the hotel, Trident at Nariman Point, we embarked on our first journey to visit the Future Supply Chain warehouse, FSC, which is a part of The Future Group. We took advantage of the two-hour bus drive to FSC to catch up on some much needed sleep. There are just not enough hours in the day to be able to see everything that Mumbai has to offer! Once arriving at FSC's warehouse, managers showed us a brief PowerPoint about the ins and outs of their supply chain operations.

Founded in 2007, FSC is currently the largest retailer in India and has five different working zones, east, west, north, south and central. Visiting the west location we got to see the largest warehouse used in India. FSC has around 60 employees and 400 associates with companies such as Big Bazaar as well as external customers such as Ford, Cadbury, Tata Motors, ITC, and Johnson and Johnson. FSC operates with multiple manufactures and stores laced through technology. The supply chain begins with pre- receiving and unloading where items are organized and scanned into the smart warehouse system where the system then sorts the items depending upon whether it should be stored or packaged for delivery. This "put to life" (PTL) scanning procedure increases the supply chain accuracy by one hundred percent. This process also allows each product to be ready for shelves with SKUs already in place.

Competition is not an issue as FSC managers stated during our visit. FSC has been in the industry for 10 years and during that time they have established crucial relationships. Even though companies such as Wal-Mart are entering into the Indian marketplace, FSC is not worried. They are calling the competition ‘partners’ because companies such as Wal-Mart will come in and need support with issues like IT and storage, and thus FSC will be there to assist and gain business.

After a brief presentation about the above information, we were served a lovely snack of coffee, tea and cookies before we got a tour of the facilities. We were first brought to the largest warehouse with the tallest ceilings. FSC utilizes warehouse space to the max with its specially designed forklifts that allows them to place and take down merchandise with ease. In addition to the normal warehouse rows, there was also a large encasement for cold products. You could instantly smell the scent of cocoa when walking into the cold storage room from the raw materials that were being stored for the manufacturing of chocolate. After browsing this warehouse, we were taken to another warehouse where we witnessed a sorting assembly line. In this situation, workers placed bins on a belt. Each box has a SKU that was scanned by a worker and if the item were to be placed in a corresponding box, the light and number of items would appear underneath the corresponding box. The employee would then place the items in the box, turn off the light, and continue the same process.  

After a long morning in the hot warehouses of FSC we decided to have Pizza Hut for lunch. Eating nothing but Indian food since our arrival, many of us were excited to see pizza. However, the Pizza Hut Mumbai menu was a bit different from the one in Miami. We found region specific menu items like chicken tika pizza and vegetable-paneer pizza. After lunch we had the great pleasure to meet with Anshuman Singh, the Managing Director and CEO of FSC who was very insightful and answered many of our questions about supply chain management and doing business in India.

Even with a company filled day, we couldn't leave Mumbai without getting to visit the Gateway to India. Despite the terrible traffic we still made it to the gateway before the sun went down.  After taking pictures and marveling over the beautiful scenery that surrounds the gateway, we headed to a nearby street market. Never passing up an opportunity to shop, we witnessed streets lined with vendors and stores galore. From knickknacks to t-shirts to traditional Indian saris, this market had it all. 

After an eye opening company visit, sightseeing and shopping, the group gathered for some down time at the rooftop lounge, Dome, at the Intercontinental Hotel. Relaxing with the skyline view of Mumbai in the background was an extraordinary way to spend our last night in Mumbai and begin our adventures to Delhi tomorrow night.

-India from the eyes of Jody and Stephanie